'At The Movies' is cancelled: A bad thing for criticism on TV?

From ew, The news that At The Movies has been cancelled — a show that began its life under the title Sneak Previews on PBS in 1978 — is certainly the end of an era in the TV presentation of reviewing and criticism. And it’s sadly ironic that the show should be snuffed just as it attained two hosts, A. O. Scott and Michael Phillips, who are probably the most rigorous film critics the franchise ever had. (It bears noting that on his Chicago Sun-Times blog, Ebert has already announced he’ll proceed with plans for “a new movie review program on television.)

Two things, quickly. First: There will be a lot of wailing about At The Movies disappearing, but such protestations are like the ones that abounded when Conan O’Brien was ousted from The Tonight Show — i.e., it’s likely that few of the people who now regret the passing of At The Movies are actually watching it every week these days. Second: We shouldn’t forget that the show’s original hosts, Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel, were not always the lionized figures they are today.

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